‘Big Little Lies’ Wins Emmy For Best Limited Series

Completing a five-Emmy run this evening, Big Little Lies took the Emmy for Best Limited Series over heavyweight competition from Fargo, Feud: Bette and Joan, Genius, and The Night Of. It was leading the Emmy haul pack before the final awards were announced.

Rushing back to the stage after her own win for Best Actress, Nicole Kidman thanked viewers for embracing the show. “The power of television has astounded us,” she said. “We entered into your living rooms and people talked about it. As much as this show had entertainment value, it was about real issues.”

Reese Witherspoon spoke of an incredible year for women on the screen. “Bring women to the front of their own stories,” she demanded. “Make them the heroes of their own stories.”

Added Kidman: “This is a friendship that then created opportunities out of our frustration, because we weren’t getting offered great roles. So now, more great roles for women, please.”

Based on Liane Moriarty’s novel, the David E. Kelley-scripted, Jean-Marc Vallée-directed HBO hit tells the story of a group of women in a tight-knit, well-heeled community in Monterey, CA. When a murder rocks the gossipy residents, the fragile truths behind their picture-perfect lives threaten to be exposed.

The show stars Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern and Zoë Kravitz. Witherspoon and Kidman worked together to option the book, Kidman told me recently, inspired by Moriarty’s novel and determined to create opportunities for women in Hollywood. “I’m normally the only woman in the cast,” Witherspoon told me, “so to have an experience where I’m looking across at four incredibly talented actresses and calling on them to help me for my performance, it’s a gift I’ve never had in my entire career. I feel really proud of the fact that Nicole and I worked really hard to make that happen.”